Insights into the French way of life and European travels by an Australian living in the Loire Valley
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- Cycling along the Neckar in Germany #2 – Horb – Rottenburg – Türbingen – Bebenhausen | Aussie in France on Cycling along the Danube – Regensburg and the Altmuhle
- Cycling along the Neckar in Germany #2 – Horb – Rottenburg – Türbingen – Bebenhausen | Aussie in France on Cycling in Germany #5 – Bad Schandau to Pirna along the Elbe
- Une semaine au Pays Basque – One week in the Basque Country – Artyfixe on Architecture on the Basque Coast
- Jacqueline on Friday’s French – livret de famille, fiche, fichier
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Tag Archives: Friday’s French
Friday’s French – courant, current, actuel, actual
These are more of those look-alike words that the French call faux-amis. We’ll start with courant which has a few different meanings. We’re only going to look at adjectives here. Les dépenses courantes d’une maison, for example, are ordinary or … Continue reading
Posted in French language
Tagged actual in French, actuel in English, courant in English, current in French, Friday's French
6 Comments
Friday’s French – Minute papillon
As we were driving through Paris recently in the rain, we saw a café called “Minute Papillon” which made me wonder about the origin of the expression which is roughly equivalent to our English saying “Hold your horses!”. Some sources … Continue reading
Friday’s French – Important, importance, substantial, substantiel
Unlike English, important in French can indicate quantity where in English, it only means “of great import or significance”. e.g. Il y avait un nombre important de demandes : there were a large number of applications. In English, we have to choose among … Continue reading
Friday’s French – poil, cheveux, hair, fur
You may remember a discussion about poêle a couple of weeks ago. Now there is another word that is pronounced exactly the same way (unless you come from the south of France and pronounce the “e” at the end of poêle) and … Continue reading
Posted in French language
Tagged Friday's French, fur in French, hair in French, poil de la bête, poil in English
17 Comments
Friday’s French – poêle, poeliste, fumiste, fumisterie
I would just like to point out straight away that poeliste is not a real word but it amused my Solognot neighbour Alain no end. We are thinking of putting a wood-burning stove in our downstairs living room (as I … Continue reading
Posted in French language, Uncategorized
Tagged Friday's French, fumiste in English, poêle
9 Comments
Friday’s French – marmelade, confiture & jam
I was recently told a very plausible and fascinating story about the origin of the word marmelade. The future Mary Queen of Scots was brought up in France, mostly in the Castle of Amboise just down the road from us. She was … Continue reading
Posted in Cooking, Food, French language
Tagged confiture in English, Friday's French, jam in French, origin of confiture, origin of jam, préservatif
8 Comments
Friday’s French – L’été indien, l’été de la saint martin, l’été de Vireux
The exceptional warmth in France (and most of the northern hemisphere from what I can gather) this year has everyone talking – incorrectly as usual – about the été indien which is a literal translation of Indian summer. The real … Continue reading
Friday’s French – déménager, déménagement, ménager
Lundi on déménage ! For some reason, it sounds more specific in French than the English “We’re moving on Monday !” I guess it’s because “move” can be used to mean so many different things but déménager always means moving house (or office or … Continue reading
Friday’s French in Portugal
My first contact with Portuguese was during my honours year of university in Australia when I studied and fell in love with Romance Linguistics, which is the story of how Latin turned into Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian. It … Continue reading
Posted in French language, Portugal
Tagged days of the week in Portuguese, Friday's French
5 Comments
Friday’s French – littoral, cotière & rivage
In last week’s Friday’s French, I talked about côte meaning coast (among other things). A reader said he thought that littoral meant coast so I thought I should do a second post! I checked out my trusty Larousse which tells … Continue reading

Posted in French language
Tagged coast in French, différence between littoral and côte, Friday's French
3 Comments